I am buying a house mortgage free in Highgate. I have lived for the last dozen years in Highgate. Conveyancing searches are expensive. As I have knowledge of the area and road very well should I not bother getting the solicitor to do all the conveyancing searches?

If you not getting a home loan, then almost all of the Highgate conveyancing searches are optional. Your conveyancer will ’encourage you, no-doubt strongly, that you should have searches carried out, but she has a professional duty to take that path of advice. Do take into account; if you are intend to sell the house in the future, it may be of interest to your future purchaser what the searches determine. There are plenty of instances where properties with apparent issues can still throw up unpredicted search results. A competent conveyancing solicitor in Highgate should be able to give you some sensible guidance concerning this.

Can your site be used to locate a Conveyancing solicitor in Highgate even where I’m not purchasing or disposing of a house, for example if I wish to buy a shop in Highgate with a loan from ?

The service is primarily used to locate residential conveyancing solicitors in Highgate but we have listed at the bottom of this page a few Highgate commercial conveyancing firms. You should speak with the solicitors directly to check if they can also act for

This question may be naive but I am unseasoned as a 1st time buyer of a garden flat in Highgate. Do I receive the keys to the premises on completion from my conveyancer? If so, I will instruct a High Street conveyancing solicitor in Highgate?

On the day of completion you do not need to attend the conveyancers office in Highgate. Your solicitors will electronically transfer the purchase money to the vendor’s solicitors, and once they have received this, you should be invited to collect the keys from the property Agents and move into your new home. Usually this occurs between 1 and 3pm.

My wife and I purchasing a end of terrace house in Highgate. Our aim is to carry out an extension to the side at the house.Will the conveyancing process include enquiries to ascertain if these alterations are allowed?

Your conveyancer will review the registered title as conveyancing in Highgate will sometimes identify restrictions in the title documents which prohibit certain changes or require the permission of a 3rd party. Many works need local authority planning consent and approval in accordance building regulations. Many areas are designated conservation areas and special planning restrictions apply which frequently prevent or affect extensions. It would be prudent to check these things with a surveyor ahead of any purchase.

I'm the sole beneficiary of my late grandmother’s will and I have everything in my name alone, including the my former home in Highgate. Conveyancing formalities meant that the Land Registry date was in . I now wish to sell up. I do know about the CML 6 month 'rule', meaning my proprietorship could be treated the same way as if I'd bought the house in . Do I have to wait 6 months to sell?

The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ handbook obliges solicitors to: "report to us immediately if the owner or registered proprietor has been registered for less than six months." By the strict wording you may be affected by that. How sensible a view mortgage companies take of it, depend on the mortgage company as this provision is principally there to pick up on subsales or the flipping of property.

Over the last few months I have been searching for a ground for flat up to £245,000 and identified one near me in Highgate I like with a park and railway links in the vicinity, the downside is that it only has 49 years on the lease. There is not much else in Highgate suitable, so just wondered if I would be making a grave error acquiring a short lease?

If you need a mortgage that many years may be a potential deal breaker. Discount the offer by the amount the lease extension will cost if not already taken into account. If the current proprietor has owned the premises for at least twenty four months you could request that they commence the lease extension formalities and then assign it to you. An additional ninety years can be extended on to the current lease and have £0 ground rent by law. You should speak to your conveyancing lawyer regarding this.

Fiveweeks into buying a house in Highgate. Conveyancing lawyer has told us the property is "Leasehold". Does this impact the salability of the property?

Highgate conveyancing does not ordinarily involve leasehold houses. The crucial consideration here is the length of lease and the ground rent. If there are over a hundred years remaining with a peppercorn rent, it's almost the same as freehold, so it’s unlikely to affect the marketability too much.

At the other extreme, if it's, say, 50 years it is bound to have a adverse effect on the value, and probably wouldn't be acceptable to the mortgage company. The length of lease and ground rent will be specified in the lease provided to your .